---
id: "2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash/"
as_of: "2026-10-20T02:15:00+02:00"
date: "2026-10-19"
date_precision: day
category: model-release
importance: 3
confidence: high
status: [Confirmed]
sources: 4
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-19"
---

As of: 2026-10-20 02:15 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash/

# MiniMax releases M3.1 Flash, revealed as OpenRouter's stealth 'Space Bunny'

Full title: MiniMax releases M3.1 Flash, revealed as OpenRouter's stealth 'Space Bunny': $0.15/$0.60 per 1M tokens, DeepSWE 73.7%, weights due Oct 23

On Oct 19, 2026 MiniMax released M3.1 Flash (API id MiniMax-M3.1-Flash), an agent and coding model priced at $0.15 input and $0.60 output per 1M tokens, about a third of MiniMax-M3's cost and three times its speed. MiniMax reports 73.7% on DeepSWE v1.1, 61.7 on OSWorld V2 and 29.6 on Agents' Last Exam. It was the stealth model "Space Bunny", OpenRouter's #1 model for 10 days. Weights: Oct 23.

## Key facts
- API id: MiniMax-M3.1-Flash; available via the MiniMax API, M Plan and MiniMax Code (desktop); free on OpenRouter for 72 hours from Oct 19
- Price (flat): $0.15 input / $0.60 output per 1M tokens; cache reads $0.015/1M. MiniMax: 1/3 the cost of M3 and ~3x faster; agentic task cost ~70% lower than its predecessor; 200+ tokens/s output, P50 170+ tokens/s
- Benchmarks (MiniMax, self-reported): DeepSWE v1.1 73.7%; OSWorld V2 61.7 (first among Chinese models); Agents' Last Exam 29.6 (first among Chinese models); BankerToolBench 76.2; CyberGym 82%; AutomationBench 62% and BabyVision 91% (X post)
- Space Bunny: MiniMax says the stealth model 'Space Bunny' (200T+ tokens) was an earlier version; OpenRouter says it was its #1 model for 10 straight days, processed 56.7T tokens (the most of any stealth model it has run) and left OpenRouter on Oct 5
- Weights: MiniMax's X post says 'Model weights will arrive on Oct 23'; the blog says 'later'. License and context window not stated in the launch post. A larger 'Pro' model is planned, no date
- Reach: MiniMax's launch post had ~804k views on Oct 19 (fxtwitter); HN thread 210 points

## What happened

MiniMax launched M3.1 Flash as a cheap, fast model for agent work (office automation, coding, computer use, security tasks). A preview,
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash-Preview, had been available since late September only inside MiniMax's subscription plans; this release adds a public
per-token price. MiniMax and OpenRouter both confirmed that the anonymous "Space Bunny" model that topped OpenRouter's usage charts in
late September and early October was an earlier version. All benchmark numbers are MiniMax's own.

## Why it matters

It continues the Chinese price war on agent models: on the same weekend DeepSeek shipped V4.1-Flash-1017 under MIT, and M3.1 Flash
undercuts MiniMax's own M3 by two-thirds. Its stealth run showed developers chose it in volume before they knew who made it.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 172 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 111 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 202 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 141 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [MiniMax: M3.1 Flash launch blog](https://www.minimax.io/blog/minimax-m31f) (minimax.io, official)
2. [MiniMax on X: M3.1 Flash, 'Space Performance + Bunny Speed' (Oct 19)](https://x.com/MiniMax_AI/status/2112150867868541221) (x.com, official)
3. [OpenRouter on X: stealth model reveal, Space Bunny is M3.1 Flash](https://x.com/OpenRouter/status/2112152045461680591) (x.com, discussion)
4. [Hacker News discussion (210 points)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50154540) (news.ycombinator.com, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-10-19 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2026-10-17: [DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 update: big agentic-coding gains, same price](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-17-deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017/index.md)
- 2026-06-01: [MiniMax M3: open-weights 428B MoE with 1M context and native multimodality](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-06-01-minimax-m3/index.md)
- Models: [MiniMax-M3.1-Flash](https://postcutoff.com/m/minimax-m3-1-flash/) (`minimax-m3-1-flash`)
- Archived: 2 posts, listed in https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-19-minimax-m3-1-flash/index.json